Originally from Egypt, I have made Canada my new permanent home. I have now spent 17 years working in the operations of the banking and investment industries. During the last 10 years of my work, my efforts have been directed almost exclusively towards the creation and implementation of new policies designed to streamline our operations. As a result of this extensive professional experience, I am now very well educated in the areas of risk and performance analysis as well as the implementation of GIPS standards. I have also learned a great deal about economics, generally speaking, and become accomplished at quantitative research, financial analysis, and accounting. Thus, I feel strongly not only that it is time for me to earn my Master’s Degree but also that my background provides me with something to offer your distinguished Public Administration and Public Policy Master’s Program at XXXX University. Your program is my first choice for graduate school because of your unique blend of public administration and public policy, my two principal intellectual interests. Your location is also ideal since we have made our home in Montreal.

As an immigrant from Egypt, I was surprised at times, with how well Canada’s immigration system worked; on other occasions, I came up with creative ideas as to how it could work much better than it currently does, ideas which I would love to explore as a graduate student doing research in your MPPPA Program. In fact, in addition to excelling in all of your core material, I look forward to developing a research base in the area of immigration and public policy and spending the balance of my life studying realistic, practical, and effective measures that might be put into place so as to streamline the process, making it more fair and inclusive as well as faster and more generally efficient. I am especially interested in the cases of women who have had difficulties in the immigration system and how the special concerns of women might be better addressed in the future.

I am very much inspired by one of the success stories on your web site, that of XXXX who currently works as a policy advisor in the area of immigration to Canada’s Ministry of Citizenship. Like XXXX, I hope to launch a new career for myself by writing a Master’s Thesis that has gender as a central focus. Skinner notes how choosing the thesis option helped her to sharpen her research skills which she sees as central to her success. My interest in public affairs took off early on, primarily as a result of the fact that my eldest sister worked for the Egyptian Civil Registry Office and she knew that I loved to listen to her stories of corruption, mismanagement, etc. Some of those tales were so stark that I was quite relieved to find employment in the private sector. At least, employees in the private sector seem to work harder than their counterparts in the public sector; policies seem clearer from my perspective, with more effective implementation.

I have been a member of the Egyptian Red Crescent for several years and in Canada I volunteer with two different charitable organizations. I have spent a lot of time working with an active listening program for older residents, telaide.org and I also advise recent immigrants to Canada through Project Genesis (www.genese.qc.ca), explaining the rights that they have in Canada and helping to coordinate their needs with a variety of institutions both public and private according to the issues that they face.

The greatest weakness of my application to XXXX is the fact that my undergraduate GPA in Egypt, French Literature (1990-1994), does not meet your minimum requirement. Thus, I am asking for special consideration in this regard. I have now completed 6 courses at XXXX University and will soon complete my Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance. I currently have a 3.2 GPA which is on the rise as I gain familiarity with the system. It is my hope that you will see this as evidence of my ability to perform well as a graduate student in the area of public policy and administration, taking my professional experience into account, because I very much have my heart set on attending your distinguished and especially creative MPPPA Program at XXXX.